“This house must not fall”, I wrote in my column of January 1, 2014, published in Daily Trust to mark 100 years of the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates of Nigeria. I have always believed that if we run an inclusive system which allows all parts to retain their cultural identity and achieve their potentials while also identifying with a larger unifying umbrella, then we have a chance to strengthen the house that Frederick Luggard built. The least one would expect is that all parts of the country would subscribe to the same set of general values — e.
g. responsible parenthood, compulsory primary/secondary education, girl child education, equality of citizenship and acceptance of the supremacy of the constitution. If we aspire to be one country in deed and truth, then we generally shouldn’t have any problem subscribing to those values.
North/South But we hardly agree about anything. Most times, it is possible to correctly predict the ‘southern position’ on an issue and the ‘northern position’. This is in spite of the fact that there is no such thing as a Southern Nigerian political structure, nor is there one for the North.
Both areas have fiercely independent minority groups who resent being lumped together with the majority as if they were mere appendages. However, the political elite on both sides pretend to speak for the totality of the people in their geographical area. Thus, one man will stand up and say, “The North will not tolerate.